Varieties of Twentieth Century American Naturalism

Abstract

naturalism dominated twentieth century American philosophy.1 Naturalism is a philosophical worldview that relies upon experience, reason, and especially science for developing an understanding of reality. Naturalism demands that these three modes of understanding together shall control our notion of reality. Varieties of naturalism emerge because the many essential factors of experience, reason, and science can be coherently related in numerous ways. All naturalisms demand that experience, reason, and science be taken most seriously so that no fourth mode of understanding can be permitted to override them. This triadic unity moderates the excesses of phenomenalism and idealism, and filters out spiritualism and supernaturalism for their introduction of radical and mysterious discontinuities into knowledge and reality. Scientific method and knowledge play a crucial role in all naturalisms. Varieties of naturalism may be distinguished along three dimensions: the degree of ontological confidence given to science; the breadth of explanatory discretion given to science; and the number of scientific fields permitted to describe reality. From the logically possible combinations resulting from these dimensions, seven viable varieties of naturalism are distinguished and contrasted. Each of these varieties of naturalism has had champions in the course of twentieth century American philosophy, such as Dewey, Whitehead, Santayana, Quine, Sellars, Davidson, Churchland, Putnam, and Searle. The conclusion discusses the three major competitors during the twentieth century for the title of the “genuine” naturalism: Reductive Physicalism, Non-Reductive Physicalism, and Perspectival Pluralism. The struggles among these great naturalisms and the other viable varieties of naturalism have been bequeathed to the twenty-first century, and their outcomes may decide the ultimate fate of naturalism itself.

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